Thousand Layer Moon Cake

It's been extremely long since I've posted anything. I just finished my thesis (yay!) so now I have free time! Over Thanksgiving break, I tried a lot of things out, one of it being the thousand layer moon cake. I have a weakness for flaky crispy pastries, so this one was a must. It turned out really well! Enjoy!

Thousand Layer Moon Cake with Sweet Potato Filling

Materials

Water Dough

· 1 cup AP flour

· 3.5 tbsp butter, cut to small pieces

· 2 tbsp powdered sugar

· 5 tbsp + 2 tsp water

Oil Dough

· ¾ cup + 1 tbsp AP flour

· 4 tbsp vegetable oil

· 2 – 3 drops of pandan essence

Sweet Potato Filling

· 1 small sweet potato (or ½ a large one)

· 2 tbsp sugar

· 1 tsp oil

Procedure

· Boil the sweet potato until soft.

· Peel and smash until there are no more clumps.

· In a pot, add the sweet potato filling, sugar, and oil, and mix until it is homogenous

· Let cool. Once cool, make 10 1” diameter balls of filling.

· For the water dough: add everything but the water. Slowly add the water as you mix the dough. Mix until it forms a non-sticky ball (~3 minutes) and let sit for 15 minutes.

· After it sits, divide the dough to 5 pieces.

· For the oil dough: add everything but the pandan essence and mix for 1 minute. Add the pandan essence and mix until the ball becomes a nice even green. The dough should be able to form a ball without falling apart. If it is falling apart, add a bit more oil. Let sit for 15 minutes.

· After it sits, divide the dough into 5 pieces and roll it up into a ball.

· See this video for how to roll the dough for the layers. It’s much clearer than anything I could write to help you understand it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig7UV_Idw78 Thanks tinyurbankitchen!

· Preheat the oven to 250°F and bake for 30 minutes until they layers are flaky but the moon cake is not golden.

**Side note: I made this with sweet potato filling because I didn’t have any mung beans at the time. If you have mung beans, you can use mung bean filling. It has a longer shelf life – 1 week. The sweet potato filling lasts only a few days.

Pita Crust Pizza + Garlic Cheesy Bread

Hello again! I have had a rougher than expected semester (classes, work, internship-search, etc...) and failed at updating this blog. I received a postcard from a friend from abroad reminding me to update my blog, so I guess I'll once again try. I have to admit that I once again failed at picture taking, but I did make this today for dinner (for my boyfriend and his mom..eek) and it turned out pretty well.

To be honest, I didn't use pita bread as the crust. I went to Henry's and bought small pita crust sized whole wheat thin pizza crust. However, because you can't find this outside of Henry's, I decided to edit the recipe for pita bread. For toppings, you can use any toppings. I will write in my topping mixtures that I used. Enjoy!

Pita Crusted Pizza and Garlic Cheesy Bread
Savor. Devour.

Pizza Materials:

· Five pita bread pieces

· Pizza sauce: in a bowl, mix 1/3 cup tomato sauce, 2/3 cup tomato paste, 2 tsp garlic salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp dried crushed basil, 1 tsp oregano (or marjoram, the sweeter smelling sibling of oregano), and 1 tsp Italian seasoning

· Shredded mozzarella cheese (I actually just bought a big block of mozzarella cheese and shredded it myself. If I had to estimate, it would be about 1/3 cup of shredded cheese per pizza.)

· Topping Mixture for each pizza (remember to multiply by 5 when groceries shopping): 8 – 10 thin garlic slices, 1.5 thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, 1/8^th thinly sliced medium onion, ¼ thinly sliced tomato rounds, 8 – 10 small pineapple chunks, a handful of small chicken thigh chunks, and 3 freshly chopped basil leaves.

Garlic Cheesy Bread Materials:

· 1/2 loaf French bread (the large cheap one at supermarkets – I bought mine at Henry’s for $1.49)

· 2 tbsp butter

· 2 tsp Italian seasoning

· 2 tsp garlic salt

· 3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

· ½ cup + 2 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese (I just cut out thin slices from my big block of cheese and covered the bread slices.)

Procedure:

· Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

· Add 2.5 tbsp pizza sauce and spread evenly on pita bread

· Sprinkle on the cheese (about 1/3 cup)

· Add in order: garlic slices, tomato rounds, mushroom slices, onion, pineapple chunks, chicken, and lastly basil leaves

· Place pizza in a flat pan and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until cheese is melted, chicken is fully cooked, and pita crust is crunchy.

· While pizzas are baking, in another pan, cut the French loaf lengthwise into halves. Spread with butter. Evenly sprinkle on the garlic salt and Italian seasoning and coarsely chopped garlic on top. Add the cheese to evenly coat the top of the toast. Bake for 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

Bánh Bao (Vietnamese pork stuffed steamed buns)

Bánh bao is the Vietnamese version of 包子 （baozi). I've been craving bánh bao for days now, but classes and work have kept me from making it. Thank goodness the weekend has arrived and I found enough time to make these.

I've been experimenting with different ratios of all purpose flour and low-gluten flour, and I found that using half-half of each flour works best to create a fluffy bao texture. However, if you do not have enough low-gluten flour, feel free to change the ratio.

I've also heard that you can create make-shift low-gluten flour by adding two tablespoons of corn starch to a cup before filling it with all purpose flour. I have yet to try this and will update on the outcome when I finally get to it!




Bánh Bao (Vietnamese Pork-stuffed Steamed Buns)
Savor. Devour.

Materials:

Starter Dough:

· ½ cup lukewarm (~85°F) water

· ½ cup all purpose flour

· 1 tbsp (approx. 1 packet) active dry yeast

· 1 tbsp sugar

Bao Dough:

· ¾ cup all purpose flour

· ¾ cup low gluten (cake) flour

· 2 tsp baking powder, divided into two sections

· ½ tsp salt

· 2 tbsp sugar

· 1 tbsp oil

· ½ cup (~85°F) water (or a little more or a little less depending on the brand and ratio of flour you use)

Filling:

· ½ lb ground pork

· ½ medium onion, minced

· 1 dozen quail eggs

· 2 Chinese sausages, sliced

· 6 shiitake mushrooms

· 1 tsp each: sesame oil, salt, pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, mushroom seasoning (or any msg substitute)

· 1.5 tbsp water

· 2 tbsp tapioca starch (can substitute with corn starch)

Procedures:

Starter Dough:

· Add all together in a big bowl and mix until well blended

· Let the starter dough rise for an hour (again, I like to heat up the oven for about 2 minutes and then turn it off to create a good environment for the yeast to do its work, and place the bowl of dough inside to rise)

Bao Dough + Filling:

· To the starter dough, add the flour, 1 tsp baking powder, salt, sugar and oil and mix

· Slowly add the water and knead the dough. Once all the water is added, knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth.

· Let the dough rise (see starter dough for instructions on best location for productive yeast) for 3 hours

· While waiting for the dough to rise, mix all the ingredients, except for the quail eggs, together in a bowl. Divide the meat mixture evenly into 12 portions. Take each portion and flatten it. Place a quail egg in the middle and wrap the meat around it so that the egg is in the center of the sphere. Set the filling aside.

· Add 1 tsp baking powder to the dough and mix gently but evenly.

· Roll the dough into a log and cut out 12 even pieces of dough. Place back into the bowl and cover to keep from getting hard.

· Take one piece of dough and roll it out flat into a 5” by 5” circle. Place the meat filling ball in the center and start folding the dough toward the center top of the meat filling in one direction. Pinch the top and twist so that the filling is not exposed. Pat the pinched top down so it does not protrude too much. Cover these buns so it does not get hard. Repeat with the other 11 pieces of dough and filling.

· Let the buns, covered, rise for another 45 minutes.

Steaming:

· While the buns are rising, start the steamer so that the water boils.

· Add the buns to the steamer. In the steamer, make sure the buns have at least 2 additional inches of free space around the bun for expansion.

· Steam for 15 minutes on medium-low heat.

· These buns can be eaten right away or let cooled and stored in a air-tight zip-lock bag for up to 1.5 weeks.

Bánh Củ Cải (Turnip Cake)

I never miss a chance to get these at dim sum places... they are so good! However, I sometimes get cravings for them, but not for everything dim sum entails, so I just make them. Hope you enjoy!

Bánh Củ Cải (Turnip Cake)
Savor. Devour.

Materials:

· 1 cup rice flour

· 2 tbsp tapioca starch

· 1.5 cups water

· ¼ cup dried shrimp, soaked in water for two hours and coarsely minced (I usually just take a handful, no need for exact measurements)

· 1 Chinese sausage link, washed and coarsely minced (I wash these sausages by soaking them for a minute under really hot water)

· 2 fried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water for two hours and coarsely minced

· 1.5 cups grated daikon radish

· 1.5 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp pepper, a pinch of sugar

· ¼ cup chopped green onions

· ¼ cup minced onion bulb

· Dipping: 2 tbsp soy sauce + 2 tsp vinegar + optional rooster chili paste

Procedures:

· In a hot pan with a tsp of oil, add the onion, mushroom, Chinese sausage, and dried shrimp. Fry for a minute or two, then add the grated daikon. Season.

· In a bowl, add the flour and starch. Mix well with 3/4 cup cold water. Add in ¾ cup hot water and mix well.

· Add the fried ingredients into the flour mixture and mix well. Pour into a steamable pan of some sort. I use a casserole dish.

· Steam on medium heat for 45 minutes, opening the lid to let the air out for a few seconds every ten minutes.

· Let the turnip cake cool. You can continue to the next step or store it in your fridge for up to 4 days.

· When you are ready to eat it, cut it into 3 inch by 3 inch squares and fry them with a drizzle of oil. Serve with the dipping sauce.